[Sca-cooks] Raw Milk

Kathleen Madsen kmadsen12000 at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 2 17:36:37 PDT 2006


Wonderful!  Yes, raw milk is the best source of milk
for any kind of cheesemaking.  You treat it the same
as you would pasteurized and the flavor should be much
more full and with more depth than with pasteurized. 
All of the good yeasts and cultures that are found in
that local terroir will be there.

If you have been using calcium carbonate in your
pasteurized cheese batches you won't need to use it
for the raw.  The calcium carbonate causes the curd to
tighten up as pasteurization breaks down the protein
strands and makes the "clumping" during the rennetting
process weak giving you a softer (and more difficult
to handle) curd.  Raw milk has undamaged proteins and
so the coagulation from rennetting works better, no
need for calcium carbonate.

There are two important things to know.
1) You cannot sell any product made from raw milk
unless it has been aged a minimum of 60 days from the
milk being produced.
2) Have the farmer show you around their barn and
milking facility.  As with any operation, be it with
raw or pasteurized product, you want to be sure that
they are following clean and safe procedures. 
Generally speaking those that milk animals for raw
milk are typically much cleaner than those who do not.
 You wouldn't believe how filthy a farm producing
pasteurized milk can be while still producing milk
within the federal guidelines for bacteria found in
milk.  Given the choice I would buy raw milk over
pasteurized any day.

If anyone wants to find a local source of raw milk
they can check out: http://www.realmilk.com/  Not all
states allow raw milk sales to the public, some don't
allow it at all and others permit it only for animals
- and that's only if the producer colors it blue.  So
you may be able to buy it, or not...  We can find it
if we go really far out of our way and don't mind
paying $20 a gallon.  We're hoping to start raising
goats next year.  *sigh*

Eibhlin

***************************************************

I have just found out about a supplier of organic raw
milk not 20 
minutes away from my office. The farm owner keeps a
small herd of Jerseys.

Has anyone here used raw milk to make ricotta or other
cheeses?

Gianotta






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